Commander Keen 1: Marooned on Mars

aka: Commander Keen: "Invasion of the Vorticons" - Episode One: Marooned on Mars
Moby ID: 216

DOS version

The first Keen game

The Good
The first game in the opening trilogy. You got this game free, and then had to buy the next two. Let's just say that this was good enough to make me splash out on parts 2 & 3. It was a natural succesor to Captain Comic, but a much better game.

The graphics were good - very clear and easy on the eyes. The PC speaker sounds were cute and very well done for the time. The story was invloving and the puzzles were tricky without being frustrating.

The Bad
The control system was poor. Your Jump and Pogo buttons were CTRL and ALT. Your fire was CTRL+ALT. This made running, jumping and pogoing a hit a miss affair as you charged down the corridor only to find yourself wasting ammo rather than jumping the tricky ravine.

The Bottom Line
In every way a classic. Obviously it was vastly inferior to the later CK games with the new engine (CK4 onwards), but for a long time it captivated me like few other games have managed.

by Steve Hall (329) on August 29, 2000

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